How the fourth generation of the Cipriani clan is expanding its hospitality empire
By Harriet Mays Powell
The Italian Ministry of Culture declared Harry’s Bar a national landmark in 2001, but its story began 70 years earlier, in 1931, when Giuseppe Cipriani (pronounced “chee-pree-ah-nee”) opened the now legendary establishment at the mouth of the Grand Canal in Venice. According to company lore, the bar was named after a young American patron, Harry Pickering, who frequented the Hotel Europa where Cipriani worked as bartender. Noticing that Harry was dropping by less frequently, he asked why, and the young American admitted his family had cut him off financially. Cipriani generously loaned the young man 10,000 lire (approximately $500 at the time). Two years later, Pickering returned the loan, adding another 40,000 lire out of gratitude, enough for Cipriani to open his own bar.
In the decades that followed, Harry’s Bar became a watering hole for the world’s glitterati, a favorite haunt of Ernest Hemingway, as well as celebrities such as Humphrey Bogart, Maria Callas, Peggy Guggenheim, and George Clooney, to name a handful.
Giuseppe Cipriani is also credited with two inventions that are integral to today’s international culinary lexicon: Carpaccio, which it is said he created for a Venetian countess because she had been instructed by her doctor only to eat raw meat, and the Bellini cocktail, a combination of Prosecco and peach purée, which employs the delicious white peaches abundant in the Veneto region.
Fast forward to members of the fourth generation of the Cipriani family, the brothers Ignazio and Maggio, who launched Mr. C Hotels and Residences in Beverly Hills in 2001. Eight years later, the Mr. C hotel arrived in Miami’s Coconut Grove. New residential properties will debut soon in Dubai, as well as on Miami’s Bayshore Drive, while restaurants are scheduled to open in Dubai this November and in Coconut Grove next February. Plans are also underway for new South Florida Mr. C hotels in West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale. An aggressive expansion program includes projects in Canada and Saudi Arabia. The brothers’ other current ventures include Casa Cipriani private membership clubs in Milan and New York.
Here in Miami, the Mr. C in Coconut Grove is exemplary of the brand. Jaime Stuyck, an elegant Madrileño and the hotel’s general manager, explained how the idea for Mr. C Hotels and Residences was hatched. The two Cipriani brothers, who had grown up traveling around the world, found gaps in the American hotel market. First, there seemed to be an unfulfilled desire for relaxed environments that reflected informal, contemporary, affluent lifestyles, and second, they perceived a chronic lack of the flair and personal service to which American travelers in Europe had become accustomed. And, of course, it was exactly this combination of old-style glamour and studied informality that was key to the appeal and success of the original Harry’s Bar.
Stuyck was happy to say that occupancy had returned to pre-pandemic levels and that the hotel’s restaurants were invariably full. He attributed this to the exponential growth of Miami’s financial community; once a hotel primarily aimed at leisure travelers, Mr. C Miami has seen a big spike in business clientele, including new corporate accounts opening.
Mr. C is clearly a brand in the ascendant. Judging by the comfort of the accommodations, the excellence of the cuisine and the quality of the personal service, the success of Mr. C Miami is entirely well-deserved. Ninety-two years after Giuseppe Cipriani opened his iconic bar, his legacy appears to be thriving in the hands of his energetic descendants.
